Paris Guide
St-Germain
St-Germain is one of the most picturesque and lively quarters in the city. Encompassing the 6e arrondissement and the eastern fringe of the 7e, it has all the sophistication of the Right Bank – and, these days, most of the same shops too – but a certain easy-going, thoughtful chic makes it uniquely appealing. The quartier has moved ever further upmarket since the postwar era, when it was the natural home of arty mould-breakers and trendsetters, but it still clings to its offbeat charm. Broadly speaking, the further west you go the posher the shops, houses and restaurants become.
The now-celebrated boulevard St-Germain was driven right through the heart of the quarter by Baron Haussmann in the mid-nineteenth century, but it became famous in its own right after the war, when the cafés Flore and Les Deux Magots attracted the resurgent Parisian avant-garde – Sartre debated existentialism with de Beauvoir and Boris Vian sang in smoky cellar jazz bars. As Guy Béart and, later, Juliette Gréco sang, "il n y a plus d'après à Saint-Germain-des-Prés" – there's no tomorrow in St-Germain.
Fashion, now, is king. The streets around the Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge and place St-Sulpice, in particular, swarm with internationally known clothes boutiques, while a little further west the historic Bon Marché department store stocks an ever-classier range. Towards the river, it's antique shops and art dealers that dominate, with one pricey cluster around rue Jacob and rue Bonaparte, and another in the "Carré Rive Gauche", the three blocks south of Quai Voltaire. After shopping, eating and drinking are the main attractions, though, once again, the scene is distinctly chichi these days. Well-heeled foodies now flock to the gastronomic restaurants of celebrity chefs like Hélène Darroze and Joël Robuchon, and foreign visitors fill the bistrots around Mabillon.